Haveo At You!
Season Fourteen, Episode Eight Preceded By: Season Fourteen, Episode Seven: Exit Through the Gift Encounter Followed By: Season Fourteen, Episode Nine: This is the Fight That Never Ends Summary : The party has defeated the Nesferati infiltrator, and the church of Pelor is very grateful. Everyone is brushing themselves off and feeling quite good about the whole thing when Faust brings up the arcane magic he was seen to use. The very, very illegal arcane magic. : Shit. Even during an act of demon-slaying badassery, Horrid Wilting is Really Not Okay in Nyasa. Faust was the only one seen using arcane-only spells: Cicero didn't cast anything, Galland cast only Cat's Grace (which is also on the cleric list) and no one knows what the fuck psionics are. : The party asks Semna's advice on how to best shield Faust. She says that they should tell the Inquisition that they are agents in an active investigation under Albert Greenwood, and that to interfere would delay the investigation. She also suggests that they ask the investigation to be handled by either the clerics of the Dome or Greenwood himself. : Leilah uses Stone Shape to surround Ashra and herself with a stone phonebooth, then Ashra calls Greenwood on her speakstone. He swears a lot, but says he can spin this. When they emerge from the phonebooth, the party has some social cover. : It takes several days to sort out all the red tape. The party makes Galland out to be the hero of the encounter. Icania spends a lot of time pretending to be an unintelligent golem servant, mostly by standing very still and practicing his :| face. Leilah helps sort out the Nyasan bureaucracy with her knowledge from interning with the Inquisition. : When all is said and done, not only is Faust not headed for ten years of hard labor, the party is actually getting several rewards. The manor and the seignory of Phelps-on-Haverstad are being awarded to the party, as well as two medals. After some debate and legal consultation, Cicero becomes the Seignor of Phelps on Haverstad, a title which he can pass to his children. Ashra will own the physical house, which she promises will be open to the rest of the party as a safe haven. The Medal of Sacrifice and Medal of Devotion will both be awarded to Galland. He gets a neat little ceremony in which he is awarded high honors, and the rest of the party stands around politely and claps. : Eventually they can leave, which means the party needs to pick a direction to go first. Ashra decides it's time to have more fun with the golden compass, and hands it around the party to see where everyone most wants to go. All measurements are from Nyasa City. :: For Rostan, the compass points 70 degrees west by northwest; waving a donut around does not change the location. This might point to Burkina. :: The compass does not function for Icania. :: For Faust, the compass points 20 degrees south by southwest, towards Port Nyasa. :: For Nerdin, the compass points northeast, towards the harbor. :: Reon keeps the compass's direction secret, but the party sees him checking out northward locations on the map. :: For Leilah, the compass points 65 degrees southwest, towards the X over Mt. Malawi, and towards Shiolay's adamantium mine. :: For Ashra, the compass points west, towards the location Discern Location gave her for The Mother Brain of Baldur. :: For Galland, the compass points 40 degrees northeast, towards Prospero. :: For Cicero, the compass points the same direction as for Faust. : Ashra asks the clerics of the temple about the disguised demon. He'd had a low level job selling those hats, but since he was so well liked they'd given him privileges above his rank. He'd arrived 18 months ago, before the Baetyl was stolen. : The summit of Mt. Malawi looks like an interesting place to go. It could start a circuit of the pilgrimage locations; by a short detour, the party could also fly over Ashra's mother's location in the jungle for long enough for Ashra to receive a message. Leilah gives more backstory on Salafi: he had a hard time consolidating power, and his rule led to a period of collective leadership. He did eventually die during the first years of Cuthbert's reign; having made many oppressive policies, he had resigned in disgrace and left public life by the time he died. : Leilah, after thinking about it, also knows the precise location of the secret monastery atop Mt. Malawi. Sounds like a good place to start. : After all, there's no way that a bunch of Os and one X means "super dangerous, do me last." That can't be right, the party absolutely doesn't think because they don't think about it at all. Itinerary set! : The journey to Mt. Malawi is made far more comfortable with Faust's Magnificent Mansion, but despite its magnificence and it being on another plane, it still uses the air from outside. Hey, recirc is eco-friendly, guys. Nerdin reveals that he doesn't actually have to breathe. Icania says hey, neither does he, not that anyone's surprised because he's a robot and all. Leilah's heritage makes her hardy enough to tough it out, and gives Ashra the bottle of air due to her ... bad history with Altitude Sickness. Galland, Faust, and Cicero are all fine, but Rostan gets a splitting headache. : Finally Mt. Malawi is in sight. Ashra gets an excellent view of the lens cap of her spyglass, then curses and tries again. The mountain is covered by a dark, forboding electrical cloud. This looks like a magical storm, especially since it's restricted to a reasonable caster's range. Leilah has seen this mountain before during her travels. It isn't supposed to look nearly this evil. It's supposed to be well-lit, the sort of place pilgrims travel to for advice. This looks far more forboding. In the mirror, the storm is real. : Everyone has a really bad feeling about this. Tamiko's symbol of Furcas starts shaking. There are no new consciousnesses around. Those sensitive to it feel a pervasive evil all around them. : Galland spots a large black battleship with a black balloon on the horizon. Others in the party recognize it as the Bloodfoe. : Leilah takes up the helm and shoots the ship past the Bloodfoe. The Illumia appears in front of the ship. The party dodges around the other side of a mountain, but the Illumia is between the Thought and the monastery. They appear to be readying something. Any reasonable route will lead to the party sinking two shots, which would be enough to destroy the Thought. : Finally Ashra gets an idea. She directs Faust to a particular page in her old spellbooks and tells him to make an illusion of the Thought which can pass over the Illumia first and take the hit they've readied. He agrees and casts the spell. : The illusory ship sails barely ahead of the real one. The Illumia decides to hedge its bets, firing one cannon at each ship. Icania takes Avi's golden bed and tosses it over onto the Illumia's balloon. Avi is surprisingly okay with this -- something about "This isn't the first time my bed's been weaponized." : As the Thought passes over the Illumia, Faust moves the illusion through and behind the real ship, so that it'll take any other cannon shots the Illumia might aim. Leilah uses the turbo, and the Thought shoots up and over the monastery. : Everyone starts buffing as they prepare to drop down. Ashra looks out at the mountain and sees two surprised demons and one humanoid man. The demons are a Nesferati Aetherscout and a Nesferati Elite. The man, with his four fingers and distinct black uniform of Up To No Good, is Haveo Gloriosa. : Leilah sets the autopilot in and runs over to the twelve pound cannon. She hits both demons, reducing the aetherscout to a fine mist. She regrets the loss to science, as she wanted to see how aetherscouts function in battle. : Galland, inspired by this, takes up the five pounder and shoots Haveo. He's not happy about it. : Ashra notes that the doors to the temple are unlocked. : Haveo points at Galland and fires four burning rocks at the party. This is a familiar spell, but the last time we saw it it ended massive battles rather than starting them. Galland and Leilah are hit by the Meteor Swarm. : Haveo then casts two more spells. He Enervates Galland, then throws a Fireball onto the ship. It pierces Ashra's SR, never a good sign. : Icania manages to steer the Thought over land so that people can get off of the ship safely. : Reon's dagger tries to dispel Haveo and is hit with its own dispel through Spell Turning. The dagger survives and decides not to get involved. : The elite runs up to the ship and death pacts Galland. Galland seems pretty okay with this. : Faust casts a sonic Chain Lightning at the elite. It hits the nesferati, but bounces off of Haveo. : Leilah tries to cast Mass Spell Resistance, but the nesferati counterspells it. : Cicero Dimension Doors all the way over to the doors to make sure this isn't any more of a trap than it already is. : Galland jumps off of the ship to offer the nesferati death pacted to him a high five. With a sword. : Ashra floats off the ship and tries to disintegrate Haveo, but his SR is impenetrable. : The failed Disintegrate does succeed in getting Haveo to target Ashra, however. He bounces a Chain Lightning off of her SR; it fizzles and does not go on to strike the rest of the party. He then fireballs the party and Enervates Faust. : Icania tries a Negative Energy Ball and finds that Haveo does take damage from negative energy. Icania charges at Haveo, but doesn't reach him yet. Nerdin takes out his bow and shoots Haveo, hitting him once. : Reon casts Mass Death Ward, which might save Galland from his death pact. : The nesferati hits Icania. : Someone notices that they are standing in a giant magic circle against evil, 100 times larger than the standard. : Faust casts Reverse Gravity around Haveo. Haveo flies into the air. : Rostan hides and starts studying Haveo. : Leilah attacks the Nesferati with her guisarme. : Cicero reaches the doors and looks in. There's a small room covered with rugs, and another room with a cage full of unconscious monks. They're in bad enough shape that healing them wouldn't put them back in the fight. : Galland takes advantage of the Death Ward to kill the Nesferati. It explodes; he's fine. The party expects him to start death pacting Nesferati any time now. : Ashra runs over to Faust, grabs the Chain Rod from him, and gives Keen Edge to everyone whose weapons can take it. : Haveo swims out of the area of Reverse Gravity and Feather Falls to the ground. He casts Horrid Wilting, then a Magic Missile at Reon. : Icania makes it over to Haveo; Nerdin gets a few more shots in. : Leilah charges at him and notices a Repulsion field around him. He readies something. : Ashra gets off a final buff and runs over to join Leilah. : Haveo starts to move, and Leilah strikes him twice with the guisarme. He strikes her back with a greatsword. He's not bad in melee either. He starts to cast quickened Fireball; Faust counterspells. He opens a door in midair and steps through ... : ... into the next episode, where this encounter continues. Category:Season Fourteen Episodes Category:Episodes